Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Primordial Soup; Porter, Tolstoy; Junker Study 1



Junker Study 1
  oil on panel  10" x 10"

"I think it is a way of making the connection between yourself and everything."
Fairfield Porter

"A true work of art can in it's entirety  only represented by itself."
Leo Tolstoy

The way I would explain these ideas to my students was simply that each of us stand in a in a primordial soup made up of the atomic structure of all things. Out of this tangible sensory chaos an artist must try and glean some kind of form; some note of understanding things on a very non-naming, structural level. The best way to achieve Porter's connection to every thing is too erase one's self - to become one with the surroundings. This sounds like silly mumbo jumbo but it isn't - as soon as one learns to see the world without naming things and only in terms of the process of painting the visual chaos reveals patterns, color relationships, spatial connections.  This way as well, is the path to Tolstoy's true work of art - the painting having become its own reality, rather than an imitation of appearances. Enjoy!